The maid of honor looked at him with rose bloom upon her cheeks, and in
her eyes, although they smiled, a moisture as of half-sprung tears. "Is
it of Henry?" she asked. "Ah, sir, you have been so good to him! He is
very dear to me.... I would that I could thank you--"

As she spoke she moved with him to the green bank, sat down, and clasped
her hands about her knees. The man who on the morrow should leave behind
him court and court ways, and all fair sights such as this, leaned
against the oak and looked down upon her. When, after a little silence,
he began to speak, it was like a right courtier of the day.

"Fair Mistress Damaris," he said, "your brother is my friend, but to-day
I would speak of my friend's friend, and that is myself, and your
servant, lady. To-morrow I go from this garden of the world, this
no-other Paradise, this court where Dian reigns, but where Venus comes
as a guest, her boy in her hand. Where I go I know not, nor what thread
Clotho is spinning. Strange dangers are to be found in strange places,
and Jove and lightning are not comfortable neighbors. Ulysses took moly
in his hand when there came to meet him Circe's gentlemen pensioners,
and Gyges's ring not only saved him from peril, but brought him wealth
and great honor. What silly mariner in my ship hath not bought or begged
mithridate or a pinch of achimenius wherewith to make good his voyage?
And shall not I, who have much more at stake, procure me an
enchantment?"

The lady's fringed lids lifted in one swift upward glance. "Your valor,
sir, should prove your surest charm. But there is the new alchemist--"

"He cannot serve my need, hath not what I want. I want--" He hesitated
for a moment; then spoke on with a certain restrained impetuosity that